Moscow Will Back Arabs, Gromyko Tells U.n.; Avoids Mentioning Israel

Without mentioning Israel, Andrei A. Gromyko, the Soviet Union’s Foreign Minister, today ascribed the tensions in the Middle East to the West, especially accusing the United States of a “colonialist policy” toward the Arab states.

Mr. Gromyko referred to the Middle East in a long address before the General Assembly’s Political Committee. “The Soviet Union,” he declared, “has stood and is standing for the preservation of the independence of the Arab states. We do not wish to set either Egypt. Syria or any other Arab states at loggerheads with the United States, Britain or France.”

Moscow’s Foreign Minister told the committee that there is a possibility of changing the situation in the Near and Middle East. “What is necessary,” he asserted, “is to give up the policy of force and the threat of force, to renounce interference in the hone affairs of the Arab countries.”